Probe of Ex-Officer’s Shooting Inconclusive

The California attorney general’s office announced Thursday that a three-month investigation has failed to prove or disprove a former San Diego police lieutenant’s belief that the men who shot him were officers or agents of the San Diego Police Department.

Doyle Wheeler’s head was grazed by a bullet last April in an attack at his Spokane, Wash., home. He claimed the attack was retaliation for his testimony against the Police Department during the trials of Sagon Penn.

Penn, who had pleaded self-defense, was acquitted in the March, 1985, fatal shooting of one police officer, the wounding of another and the wounding of a civilian riding in a police car.

Earlier Announcement

Atty. Gen. John Van de Kamp announced Thursday that his agents spent 1,400 hours on the case and interviewed 75 witnesses, without being able to substantiate Wheeler’s allegations.

“Despite the thorough review and evaluation of all the information available to investigating agents,” Van de Kamp said, “no evidence or information was developed that could prove or disprove Wheeler’s contention regarding the identity of his assailants.”

That determination follows an announcement last year that the Stevens County, Wash., sheriff’s office also was unable to determine whether Wheeler was shot by intruders, or shot himself in a ploy to win sympathy and embarrass the Police Department.

Wheeler, in a telephone interview from his home Thursday, said he believes that he was shot by two assailants who were trying to punish him for his testimony against Police Agent Donovan Jacobs, who was wounded by Penn. Wheeler claims the assailants shot him at the request of unnamed San Diego police officers.

After two trials, Penn was acquitted of charges stemming from the wounding of Jacobs and the slaying of Police Agent Thomas Riggs. Wheeler and other witnesses testified that Jacobs started the fight that led to the shootings.

“People are going to have to believe what they want to believe,” Wheeler said Thursday. “There’s nothing I can do, other than to say that the evidence in this case from the very beginning proved I was not responsible for this. Anybody who says any different is either flat-out lying or covering up for somebody.”

Wheeler also complained that the Police Department tried to focus the attention of the attorney general’s investigators on Wheeler’s mental problems, rather than the evidence from the shooting itself.

‘Barnyard Fertilizer’

“They had to wade through a mountain of barnyard fertilizer put out by the San Diego Police Department that made the case extremely difficult to investigate,” he said. “And, whether the San Diego Police Department had any involvement in this case or not, there’s evidence that cannot be explained away that points in that direction.”

San Diego police spokesman Dave Cohen declined to comment Thursday, noting that a federal grand jury in San Diego is continuing to review the case because of the allegations that police officers may have been involved.

Wheeler said he has no money to pursue the case further.

“I’ve got to go on with my life,” he said. “I just hope all of this is over, and we’re not messed with in any way by anybody.”